Wampum

It is time to say something about the increasing scope and magnitude of planned oil- and gas extraction in the western Amazon.

In 2003, during the Alejandro Celestino Toledo Manrique administration, Peru launched a major effort to boost exploration across the Amazon. National parks are off-limits to hydrocarbon activities in Peru, but many of the blocks encroach or overlap other protected areas, including titled lands of indigenous peoples and territories of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation.

Sixty-four oil and gas blocks now cover approximately 121 million acres, or 72 percent, of the Peruvian Amazon.

The Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez administration, in power since 2006, has not substantially modified the hydrocarbon exploration initiated by the prior administration, and as of today, at least 50 people have been killed by in the Bagua Grande region -- 22 police and 30 Indians, with another 155 injured, about a third of them with bullet wounds.

For the interested reader, see Finer M, Jenkins CN, Pimm SL, Keane B, Ross C, 2008 Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples. PLoS ONE 3(8): e2932. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002932.

It is worth your time.